Bringing high-speed travel ‘to the people’: Hyperloop One sets Kansas City arrival date
July 31, 2019 | Startland News Staff
Long Awaited, Virgin Hyperloop One will finally cruise into Kansas City … just not permanently — at least not yet, the company announced Tuesday.
Photo courtesy of Hyperloop One
“When government and investor delegations come to our test site, seeing the technology makes it real for them,” Jay Walder, CEO of Virgin Hyperloop One, said in a release.
“Not everyone can come to the Nevada desert, so we’re bringing our technology to the people — the American people who will be riding this new form of transportation within a decade,” he added.
With the announcement, Hyperloop One formally launched its U.S. Roadshow, which will put its XP-1 hyperloop pod on public display in cities across the country, the company explained.
Kansas Citians will have an opportunity to investigate the pod Sept. 14 during the American Royal BBQ at the Kansas Speedway.
“There has been so much excitement and interest in this technology, and we know the Kansas City tech community and general public will be receptive to the demonstration and learning more details,” said Ryan Weber, president of the KC Tech Council.
During an April visit to the metro, Walder revealed Missouri was a serious contender in the fight to house Hyperloop One.
“What if I told you that I’ve been CEO of Virgin Hyperloop One for five months and this is the first trip I’ve taken to a state where there has been [a feasibility study conducted]?” Walder told a crowd gathered for a KC Tech Council discussion about the future of Hyperloop One.
“I think that’s a vote of confidence,” he quipped.
Click here to find out what three words Walder has for Kansas Citians hungry for Hyperloop.
XP-1 will be on display in Columbus, Ohio and Arlington, Texas before its arrival in Kansas City.
Stops at diners, hotels, museums, parks, state houses, and stadiums are planned along the pods 4,000 mile route across the country, the company said.
Featured Business
2019 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
New FCC chairman Ajit Pai is familiar with KC startup community
A native Kansan that recently visited with the area’s entrepreneurial community will now head the Federal Communications Commission. President Donald Trump selected Ajit Pai, the senior Republican on the FCC to lead the commission, which regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable. “I am deeply grateful to the President of…
Need for speed: Mozilla awards $101K to local gigabit projects
The Mozilla Gigabit Community Fund announced it will award a total of $101,000 to fund six local projects that use gigabit technology to impact learning. The Gigabit Community Fund is a national partnership between the National Science Foundation, US Ignite and Mozilla. Locally, the fund partners with KC Digital Drive, whose goal is to leverage…
Firebrand Ventures joins $6.85M round in Des Moines startup
Continuing a streak of investments, Kansas City-based Firebrand Ventures joined a sizable investment in an Iowa-based payments processing startup. Firebrand joined six other venture funds in a $6.85 million funding round in Des Moines-based Dwolla, which builds applications that facilitate bank transfers, manages customers and verifies bank accounts. The round was led by Union Square…
Challenging the notion of ‘entitled millennials,’ Rise Fast empowers young people
When the economy took a turn for the worst in 2008, many millennials saw their parents and grandparents laid off by companies they’d been loyal to for years. Eze Redwood said that although it’s easy to gloss over the impact that traumatic events have on a generation’s psyche, young professionals carry the weight of this…